Mourning the mother of the MDC
Updated on 16 March 2009
A feeling of deep sadness and shock descended over Zimbabwe in the days following the car crash on the 6 March in which Susan Tsvangirai died, writes Helen.
Everyone everywhere is talking about it and the feeling of empathy for the Prime Minister and his family and extended family is raw and palpable.
It is a tragedy that Susan Tsvangirai died just three weeks after her husband was sworn in as Prime Minister and two days after his maiden speech in Parliament.
Both events come after a decade of struggle in which time there were arrests, beatings, detentions, treason charges and assassination attempts.
When the news of the crash broke early on Friday evening it did not come from the local media but from international channels.
The initial silence of state broadcaster ZBC immediately fuelled suspicions about the 'accidental' nature of the crash.
The initial silence of state broadcaster ZBC immediately fuelled suspicions about the 'accidental' nature of the crash.
When ZBC did begin covering the news they reported that police said that the driver of the truck had fallen asleep at the wheel.
This appeared to be confirmed by the Director of Public Affairs in the Prime Minister's Office, Dennis Murira, who said the truck driver told police he had fallen asleep at the wheel.
Within a day this changed and news reports said that the truck driver had actually hit a pothole in the road.
Later this changed again and now police are saying that the truck hit a "killer hump" in the road. A hump left by construction workers who had left a mound of tarring material on the highway.
By midday on Saturday ZBC was full of the news of the crash but it was coupled with repeated film footage of Mr and Mrs Mugabe and other senior Zanu PF officials at the bedside of the prime minister.
Despite the month old unity government, the high profile of the hospital visitors, so recently arch rivals of the patient, were received with raised eyebrows by most.
More questions were asked when we heard that farmer Deon Theron had been detained by police.
Mr Theron, who had gone to the scene of the crash at the request of the MDC and taken photographs and video footage of the site and the vehicles, was held overnight and had his equipment confiscated by police.
In the last thirty years Zimbabwe has probably lost more MPs and senior government officials to car crashes than any other country in the world.
Because of the a history of car accidents resulting in the deaths of high profile people in Zimbabwe, suspicions and conspiracy theories around this car crash were inevitable.
In the last thirty years Zimbabwe has probably lost more MPs and senior government officials to car crashes than any other country in the world.
Included in the list of fatalities in the last fourteen years alone are: Employment Minister Border Gezi, Defence Minister Moven Mahachi, Industry and Commerce Minister Chris Ushewokunze, Provincial Governor Elliot Manyika, head of the Presidential Guard, Brigadier General Armstrong Gunda, and, Mr Mugabe's own bodyguard Winston Changara.
Three days after the death of his wife, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai made the statement the whole country had been waiting for.
Clearly in shock and his face still swollen as a result of injuries in the crash, the Prime Minister said the chances that this tragedy was anything more than an accident were one in a thousand.
One report from a short wave radio station broadcasting from London was perhaps closest to identifying the feelings of Zimbabweans.
An MDC supporter in the UK said that even if Morgan Tsvangirai was killed by a direct lightning strike, most Zimbabweans would probably still point a finger at Mr Mugabe.
Despite all the stories, theories and suspicions, Zimbabwe is in mourning at the death of Susan Tsvangirai, the woman tenderly referred to as the mother of the MDC, and the country.
